SEC subpoenas Kimco in Wal-Mart probe

Published February 28, 2013

| Reuters

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U.S. shopping center operator Kimco Realty Corp has received a subpoena from the securities regulator over an investigation involving Wal-Mart Stores Inc and possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the biggest operator of shopping malls in the United States said it had received the subpoena on January 28 from the SEC's Enforcement Division.

The FCPA, a 1970s-era law, bars U.S. companies and others from paying bribes to officials of foreign governments in exchange for business.

Kimco said it would fully cooperate with the SEC.

It also said the Department of Justice was conducting a "parallel investigation" with the SEC. The Hyde Park-based company did not provide further details about that probe, but said it would cooperate.

It is not clear if the SEC's subpoena is related to bribery allegations involving Wal-Mart in Mexico, which surfaced last year when the New York Times reported that the company had stifled an internal probe into suspicions that Wal-Mart de Mexico had paid bribes to help build stores there.

U.S. authorities have stepped up enforcement of the FCPA in recent years, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, KBR Inc and others.

Wal-Mart is one of the main tenants in Kimco's shopping center properties.